Trump's Budget Previewed
While his budget is very unlikely to receive approval in its entirety, it clearly shows this administrations priorities. In order to pay for a massive increase in spending on a military that already accounts for 37% of the world’s military spending, more than the next 7 militaries combined, this administration proposes to massively decrease spending on diplomacy, and wants to cut all funding to the following agencies among others:
- African Development Foundation
- Appalachian Regional Commission
- Chemical Safety Board
- Corporation for National and Community Service
- Delta Regional Authority
- Denali Commission
- Institute of Museum and Library Services
- Inter-American Foundation
- U.S. Trade and Development Agency
- Legal Services Corporation
- National Endowment for the Arts
- National Endowment for the Humanities
- Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation
- Northern Border Regional Commission
- Overseas Private Investment Corporation
- U.S. Institute of Peace
- U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness
- Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Most of the agencies have existed for decades, across Democratic and Republican administrations, and many cost pennies compared to what he wants to add to the Pentagon budget. This is a wholesale attack on valuable institutions that took decades to build and cannot just be turned off and on like a lightbulb; their dismantlement will take decades to undo, and all in order to pay for heavier spending on weapons that we already spend more on than all of our potential adversaries combined.